I know it seems like a hopeless task when institutional Europe seems like its main contribution to the Long War is translating their proposed surrender terms in all of their official languages, but there are Europeans who have what it takes to be our allies and friends.
Case in point, some Europeans doubt that we are a bigger threat than the jihadis:
Today, when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad talks about a world without Israel while dreaming of an atom bomb, it seems obvious that we -- as Germans of all people -- should be putting two and two together. Why shouldn't Ahmadinejad mean what he says? But we Germans only know what we believe.
The Americans are more dangerous than the ayatollahs? Perhaps the Americans should take the Germans at their word for a change. It's high time for a new round of re-education. The last one obviously didn't do the job.
And in the war against the jihadi aggressors, not everyone in Europe is measuring their women for hijabs:
The controversy over the 12 Muhammad cartoons that were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005 and led to worldwide protests and unrest among Muslims was merely a taste of what is to come, a dress rehearsal for the kinds of disputes Europe can expect to face in the future if it does not rethink its current policy of appeasement. As was the case in the 1930s, when Czechoslovakia was sacrificed in the interest of peace under the Munich Agreement -- a move that ultimately did nothing to prevent World War II -- Europeans today also believe that an adversary, seemingly invincible due to a preference for death over life, can be mollified by good behavior, concessions and submission. All the Europeans can hope to gain in this asymmetric conflict is a temporary reprieve, a honeymoon period that could last 10, 20, or maybe even 50 years. Anyone on death row breathes a sigh of relief when his execution is postponed to some indefinite time in the future.
The uproar over the Muhammad cartoons was symptomatic precisely because what triggered it was so insignificant. The drawings themselves were unbelievably harmless.
Not that we don't share some guilt in failing to stand with the Danes:
Even the Americans abandoned their Danish allies. During the course of a single day, three State Department spokesmen used adjectives like "unacceptable," "offensive" and "objectionable." Muslims got the message.
Although in our defense, the State Department is pretty much our own little corner of European thinking. I was an early backer of the Danes in this deadly serious silliness.
So with some Europeans not willing to surrender to the jihadis and some Europeans understanding that America really isn't the biggest threat to their existence, we must remember that there are Europeans who will stand by our side if they get the chance. We can't let our frustration with the European Union distract us from gaining friends and help from European countries. And we can't let our frustration with individual European states distract us from reaching out to their citizens.
We have friends in Europe. Don't abandon them because they aren't the majority. Not yet anyway. If we ever have to give up on keeping friends and allies in Europe to fight with us, we will have to start looking at the continent as an asset that we have to keep out of the enemy column.
